Daeluin

I agree. Often, a highly developed person will be invisible in some way, and what we see is only on the surface, perhaps what they want us to see. So long as they remain interacting with us through bodies and words and energetic shapes, and so long as that is what we are looking for, that is probably what we are going to see. There was a shaman in Zheng named Jixian who could discern whether people would live or die, survive or perish. He knew how long their lives would be and what turns their fortunes would take, giving the exact year, month, week, and date for each event like some kind of god. When the people of Zheng caught sight of him, they would turn and run. Liezi went to see him, and his mind became quite intoxicated. He returned and told Huzi about it, saying, "I used to think your Course was the ultimate, but now I see that there is something beyond it." Huzi said, "I have only finished showing you its outward ornament, not yet its inner reality. Have you really mastered this Course? A multitude of hens with no rooster can produce no chicks. You use the Course to browbeat the world, insisting that people believe in it. Because you try to control others, you have allowed yourself to be controlled. That is why this man was able to read your fortune on your face. Bring him here, and I will show myself to him." The next day, Liezi brought the shaman to see Huzi. He came out and said to Liezi, "Alas! Your master is as good as dead! That is not a living being in there! He has at most a few weeks left. I saw something very strange in him, something resembling wet ashes." Liezi went in, his collar drenched with tears, and reported these words to Huzi. Huzi said, "Just now I showed him the patterns of the earth, sprouting forth without any strenuous rumblings and without straightening themselves out. He must have seen in me the incipient impulse of the Virtuosity that blocks everything out. Try bringing him again." The next day, Liezi brought the shaman once more. He came out and said, "Your master is lucky to have met me! He's recovering; there are healthy signs of life! I could see his blockage moving into balance." Liezi went in and reported this to HUzi, who said, "Just now I showed him Heaven's soil. Impervious to both names and realities, renown and profit, the incipient impulse nonetheless comes forth from the heels. He must have seen in me the incipient impulse of all that flourishes. Try bringing him again." The next day, he brought the shaman yet again to see Huzi. He came out and told Liezi, "Your master is an incoherent mess, I have no way to read his face. Have him get himself together, then I'll come back to do a reading." Liezi went in and reported this to Huzi, who said, "Just now I showed him the vast gushing surge in which no one thing wins out. He must have seen in me the incipient impulse that balances all energies. The frothing of a salamander's swirl is the reservoir. The frothing of still water is the reservoir. The frothing of flowing water is the reservoir. The reservoir has nine names, nine aspects, and I have showin him three of them. Try bringing him again." The next day, Liezi brought him to see Huzi again. But before the shaman had even come to a halt before him, he lost control of himself and bolted out the door. Huzi said, "Go after him!" But Liezi could not catch up with him. He returned and reported to Huzi, "He's gone! I cannot catch him!" Huzi said, "Just now I showed him what I am when not yet emerged from my source -- something empty and serpentine in its twistings, admitting of no understanding of who or what. So he saw it as something endlessly collapsing and scattering, something flowing away with every wave. This is why he fled." That was when Liezi realized he had not yet learned anything. He returned to his home and did not emerge for three years, cooking for his wife, feeding the pigs as if he were serving guests, remaining remote from all endeavors and letting all the chiseled carvings of his character return to an unhewn blockishness. Solitary like a clump of soil, he planted his physical form there in its place, a mass of chaos and confusion. And that is how he remained to the end of his days. Zhuangzi, Brook Ziporyn I like this. I work over the internet remotely, and will often work from a cafe, with people walking past me all the time. When women walk past me I frequently feel a tug, as though if am a magnet and another magnet is moving past me. Sometimes it is weaker or stronger, and it tends to pull on my lower subtle energies. Men are the same, but as though the magnet is pushing the other direction. And of course both push and pull both ways, it is just that I tend to find myself pulled most strongly by the magnetic pull of women. In answer to this, I both deepen my internal receptivity and connection to my center, AND I allow myself to detach from concern over the connection. I know that I am ever connected to everything around me, and should not pretend that I have the capacity to somehow isolate myself. Instead, I minimize the potential extreme of the exchange by increasing my own receptivity and centering.... and then rather than allowing my awareness of the exchange to develop into attachment and potential discomfort or desire for something to change within me, I replace the potential for attachment with trust, and allow the exchange to occur without getting in the way of it. I wonder if this is similar to how you are able to control how much yang you are pulling. From this it sounds like you have a strong grasp over exchanging energy with your environment. But you said the following, so I think I am misunderstanding something.

Hello and welcome to the forums, Bruno! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. Music theory and daoist cosmology are deeply related, although I don't think much of this knowledge has found its way to us in the west. But essentially, the 12 months, hours, meridians, and notes in the chromatic scale all follow the same principles. Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

Hello and welcome to the forums, sheiku! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. Blessings to your unfolding journey along the way! Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

So yang can choose to still itself, but what does yin do? It can't push the yang away without being yang itself... really all it can do is disappear. Similar to pushing and pulling. When pushing something one can choose to stop pushing it. Maybe it keeps moving, but at that point it isn't a threat to the pusher. When pulling something one can stop pulling, but it can still keep moving toward oneself. This is perhaps similar to the experience of anyone with pure energy, who might cultivate in nature, and then come to the city. It will be difficult for that person's purity to remain as it was. Yet if one keeps to what is most simple and humble, one will be less likely to draw attention and invite interactions that demand a deeper investment and exchange. The more invisible one appears to the vibrations one desires little contact with, the less one invites that contact. Fear and evasion might be like running while still pulling something along behind, while with humility and frugality one avoids polarity and accepts all unconditionally, and yet appears invisible to those who are looking for something of value. If one values you, take steps to be of no value, even if in appearance alone, and they will lose their reason to bother you. My words are very easy to understand and easy to practice, yet the world can neither understand nor practice them. My words have only one source: the subtle truth of the universe. The people of the world have no knowledge of this. Thus, they have no knowledge of me. The fewer the persons that know me, the nobler are they that follow me. Therefore, the one of whole virtue wears coarse clothes superficially, but holds a precious treasure within. daodejing 70, Ni, Hua Ching

Oh, and I know I tend to write a lot of possibly complex ideas. So following the principle I mentioned... if what I write doesn't resonate, please let it go at a surface level, without feeling the need to invite it deeper within.

Sometimes I think of Yin as a type of emptiness, like space and time. And of yang as a type of substance that is contained. As yin and yang merge, there is potential for balance and imbalance. The theme of this thread seems to be seeking an answer related to the imbalances that can be forced from one to another, perhaps in particular from yang to yin. The yijing seems to have a theme, where when yang and yin interact, conditioning is invited, whereby the firmness and emptiness become cloudy and impure. In particular, where there are multiple yin lines in a row, the potential for conditioning is multiplied through each subsequent line. Perhaps as though one is walking through one layer of darkness, and then another, and then another. Perhaps the challenge here is to preserve one's wholeness and sanity through each of these layers. But, like when one is locked in a dark room, or alone in space, for extended period of times, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain one's well-being without allowing fear and delusion to transform one's coping mechanism into increasingly more instable forms. We, on these forums understand the benefits of intentionally developing stillness. However many in the outside world develop patterns and momentums that need to expend energy into forms that will receive it. Thus constantly developing and feeding desires though interactions on Computers, TV's, Radios, Work, Friends, and many unhealthy relationships with the consumption of Food. Such that when faced with time out in Nature, where the emptiness and firmness of the environment are in a more pure state, often people from the city tend to simply bring their chaotic and scattered energies into it, and, especially at night, become frightened of the vast stillness. So far this has been an exploration of the yang exploring the yin, from the perspective of the yang. And the answer for the healing of yang is greater stillness. What about the yin exploring the yang, from the perspective of the yin? When the yin is open and receptive and unclouded, and faced with yang that wants to pollute it? I wonder if the answer is the same. The daodejing says that in yielding, we remain whole. In martial arts, yielding can be thought of not being where someone is punching, slipping past the force of yang and thus not being there to resist it. Just like in the example of yang spending time in increasing layers of yin, I wonder if the deeper one allows their receptivity, their vulnerability, to embrace that yang, the more deeply it enters into one; the more deeply it pollutes one. And so I wonder if one answer is to learn to let the yang slip past on the surface layers of yin, before it is able to penetrate more deeply. To simply flow past. Another thought comes to me... that often men feel drawn to women, and more and more I feel this is an energetic phenomena. Just like I feel that men can better balance their need to find receptivity for their strength, through spending time clearing and emptying their own receptive channels, so that their yang can circulate and flow from without to within, I wonder if the same could be helpful for women. If their receptivity tends to draw in yang from outside sources, then perhaps their own yang has become more stagnant, and if it would be loosened up and worked free, if their own yang cycling from without to within, might then not be as welcoming of a home for those who are looking for one. I know it is hard for me to relate; that I only can in part. Just trying to help.

Part of me feels that the idea this can be understood in an easy linear fashion would miss the mark. Naturally it is simple, but simple enough to frame in words? Perhaps it is my own lack of realization that causes me to hesitate to embrace the conventional jing-qi-shen-void concept. Also, ling seems to be a vital component in the merging of these "treasures," that is often not mentioned. So perhaps I will only bring more confusion. Yet I would like to share this excerpt from Liu Yiming, translated in Fabrizio Pregadio's Cultivating the Tao:

Hello and welcome to the forums, Lancer Wolf! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. Best wishes to your discernment, well being, and inner peace! Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

Hello and welcome to the forums, already! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. May you find what you are looking for! Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

Hello and welcome to the forums, Netero! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. Best of luck with your studies, and we are grateful for anything you would like to share with us! Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

Hello and welcome to the forums, Deekee! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. I hope you are able to find the answers you seek. In general I recommend the classics - the I Ching, Dao De Jing, and the Zhuangzi. Studying these over and over will reveal much. And of course there are many many more. Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

Hello and welcome to the forums, Ursula! Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. Daoism is rich and diverse, and many different perspectives of it are expressed here. One way or another we all find what we need! Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of the Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Daeluin and the TDB team

So called "Daoist philosophy" comes from observing nature. Understanding nature, one can choose to talk about it, to philosophize. Or, one can use this understanding to integrate within nature. I don't share this to stimulate minds, I share this because for me, it informs my actions. Certainly I share the reasoning for why it all fits together according to a systematized perspective. But I also gave a very simple course of action to follow. This course of action was very similar to your own previous post, and followed upon an explanation of why this course of action works. So called "Daoist philosophy" often excludes the excludes the explanation of how one should cultivate oneself to regulate one's own internal balances, because that is highly dependent on the individual. It is left to the individual to work at discerning how and when they are imbalanced, how and when they are balanced, which actions lead them to greater balance or lesser balance, and so on. Only the individual can be responsible for their own healing, and this comes from sincerely intending to heal. Thus the "philosophy" is not meant to be caged and protected for specific uses. It describes the path to balance in all circumstances, and that is its value. It embodies every religion, and can easily be spoken of through the lens of Christianity, Politics, War, Knitting, Cooking, Building, Walking, Learning, Writing, or simply Being. Zhuangzi speaks of a concept called Walking Two Roads: The idea is not to project one way upon another. It is easy to speak of daoism here in this forum because we are all studying it in some fashion. Elsewhere I endeavor to speak less through my words and more through my actions. If someone wishes to hear words of wisdom, perhaps I will share, but I will take care to listen to what they are able to hear, and say no more than that. I have no desire to change others, for I accept others as they are. The best way for me to heal the world is to heal myself. And even in healing myself to the attainment of incredible powers, then just like lofty wisdom, they should not be shared with an audience that cannot properly accept them without becoming confused:

Hello Robin, and welcome to the forums, Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. Green and vibrant places are certainly special! Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you!

Thank you for this. I see some answers in the daoist study of the five phase interactions, the yijing, and yin and yang. With five element interactions, when one element creates another, this is historically called the mother-son relationship. And when one element controls the other, this is historically called the husband-wife relationship. There is this historical idea that it is the husband's role to direct the actions of the wife. Now as we are coming out of a patriarchal age, it is easy to get caught up on this. However there are reasons for this, and if we look deeper I feel we can discover much wisdom here. First, each of the five phases contains a yin side and a yang side. This yields 10 distinct phases of change that can interact with each other. Next, we can see that it is historically common for men to be set upon the yang side of the scale, and women to be set on the yin side of the scale, even though both yin and yang are contained by both. Actually, on that front, I was reading in a book on the Eight Extraordinary vessels and discovered a fascinating distinction described between how the Qiao vessels function differently in men and women. It described the yin qiao vessel in men as a network, and the yang qiao vessel in men as a channel. And the opposite for women. I think of this as the difference between a blood vessel and a network of capillaries. It is much easier for the network to get clogged up, and for the channel to have a strong flow. The yin qiao vessel flows down the inside of the legs, up the front of the body to meet at the cleft in the throat, then up the chin either side of the mouth to the inside corner of the eyes. The yang qiao flows from the outsides of the heels up the outside of the legs, coming in around the outside of the shoulders down to just above mid-clavical, then up either side of the throat to the outside corner of the eyes. In pondering on this, I can see how it would be easier for women to keep the more strongly flowing yin qiao channel clear, and how this could be discerned as a great strength of receptivity. While in men, it is easy for this network to get clogged up, and often in cultivation work one of the first things emphasized is to clear this channel and regain one's root. While in the yang qiao, in men if this is a channel, perhaps this can explain why men seem able to exert more force of strength in their actions, as a channel would perhaps allow more of a function like a pillar of strength, while as a network of yang, I would imaging this manifesting more with a spring like quality that limits the same type of use of force. No idea, but perhaps this yang vessel functioning more as a network in women can explain the increase of body fat retention. Anyway, just speculation, and I imagine there are many more components at play, but I was pleased to discover some differences between the genders that weren't only based on the reproductive systems. So we have our 10 phases: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Metal, Yin Metal, Yang Water, Yin Water. Now we can see that the so called mother-son relationship is a yin-yang relationship. From this we can deduce that yin-creating-yang, or yang-creating-yin, is different from yang-creating-yang and yin-creating-yin. In other words, it is easier for one polarity to engender something of the opposite polarity. Chinese astrology confirms this: Say a person identifies as a Yang Wood phase as central to their personality. Wood creates Fire. And Yang Wood can create both Yang Fire and Yin Fire. The rule of thumb in interpreting this in BaZi, is, that when Yang Wood creates Yin Fire - a yang-to-yin change - this is seen in how the person expresses and performs. And when Yang Wood creates Yang Fire - a yang-to-yang change - this is seen in how the person applies themselves in work. In other words, the path that changes polarity is more natural, there is an ease, and it is more natural for someone to express themselves without thinking about it very much. However for the same polarity creation, work must be applied, and this is like crafting something, creating something, doing something that requires deliberate action. And we see this same yin-yang polarity difference as related to the so called controlling relationship, with husband-wife. The controlling cycle is very important in maintaining balance in a system. Otherwise one phase could go to excesses and imbalance the entire system. In Chinese astrology (BaZi), Wood would be controlled by Metal. Yang Wood is controlled by both Yang Metal and Yin Metal. And again, the yin-controlling-yang (different polarity) relationship is going to be more natural, while the yang-controlling-yang (same polarity) relationship is going to be more forced. So when Yang Metal attempts to control Yang Wood, it is rather like hacking and slashing away at a problem - using force to control another. And when Yin Metal attempts to control Yang Wood, it is more like one's conscience at work, and this is a very beneficial thing. So we can start to see and understand how the interactions of the controlling and creating cycles within a whole system can be used to either create greater balance or to take things out of balance. I've heard that in acupuncture, it is not wise to attempt to control an element that is too strong, as this can cause trauma. It is better to nourish the strength of that which is weak. Putting this all together, we can study the effects of what happens when two human beings are interacting. First, if these two people are of different polarities, it is more easy for different polarities to be drawn to each other, and that they are naturally drawn to nurture and advise one another. However, typically men also embody an inherent external strength that may not be balanced to their own internal receptivity, while women tend to embody an inherent internal receptivity that may not be balanced to their own external strength. These imbalances within each individual, may cause them to seek out balancing with another. And, if the male's external strength is too imbalanced to match the woman's capacity and desire for receiving that strength, the natural nurturing and advising balances cannot be met, and as perhaps the female's receptivity changes to obstruction - yin changes to yang, then the dynamic of advising of the man to the woman can become one of forcefully controlling. Meanwhile the opposite must be true - that if the woman's desire for receiving the man's strength does not match the man's capacity for strength, this is like the man turning from yang to yin, and the stronger yin of the woman controlling the man through demands the man is not comfortable with and does not have the capacity to achieve. And of course the yang or yin is largely irrelevant - it is the differences in polarity and strengths of those polarities and how they change that is most important. This is all complicated, but essentially, I feel that when we cultivate and regulate our own internal balances, we are less likely to depend upon others to balance them for us, and consequently less likely to end up in situations where those balances are sought - from either gender - in a controlling dynamic. Too, the more we cultivate our own internal balances, the more we cultivate our own wholeness. And the more we disconnect from the web of dependency we used to nurture through all of our connections to others. This can feel like we are divided souls, but my sense is that we have healed ourselves, yet are still sensitive to the needs of others, and feel guilty if we do not give them what they want from us. However, what they want from us is often to leak out their energy in some way, often through emotional communication, and then for us to replenish the energy they have expended from them. We are made to feel guilty if we do not comply - guilty because they gave us a gift of energy that we did not return. However it would be better for them to recognize that it was their gift, and that gifts should not be given with expectations. The more we become whole, perhaps the more we feel isolated in some ways - and yet the more capacity for refining our energy we have, and the more we do this the more we are able to slip past the clearly defined needs and wants of others, our energy refined to a level where it reaches all. And as we begin to feel this, we might not feel isolated any longer.

I once attended a lecture series with a shaman. He would talk non-stop for hours. But we were instructed to not listen with our minds, but with our hearts. The mind can think and analyze the transmission, but the heart is where the transmission finds its home, and it does not need to be understood to find this home - it needs to be received. So perhaps Wilhelm indeed received this transmission, into his heart. And then worked hard to understand the transmission with his mind. Thomas Clear has some criticism of Jung's understanding of The Secret of the Golden Flower text. I imagine the essence here may have been much more subtle than that of the yijing, but in trying to only understand this text intellectually, without allowing it's transmission to reach the heart first, true understanding could not be found. The yijing explores a full spectrum of change. It is math. But circular math. It approaches a scientific level of change that examines the heart of balance from every possible perspective at the layer in which it operates. Thus, it cannot be fully understood without developing the capacity to see existence from all existing perspectives. I've mentioned before that I feel women are naturally more centered and connected to circular cycles of life, while men tend to be more goal oriented and use more linear approaches. To achieve true balance, one cannot attach to a single perspective but must be able to adapt, to change, to revolve, and to learn to embody the dynamic of the circle. It is easy to fear that which can easily adapt to you and encircle one, but this fear come from an expectation that the world should meet one always in the way one expects.

When something is unable to adapt, and remains ever attached to its own perspective, it is practicing subjectivity. When a law is able to adapt, it begins to transform into principle. Edit: I pulled up the quote online, and clearly, as the words Mind, Subjective, and Law, are all written in capitals closely around this section, I lack the proper context to understand what the specialized meanings of these things refer to.

Recently I've been studying hexagram 36 a bit. It has led me to explore the idea of apoptosis, and I learned a little about how cancer cells tend to find ways to evade apoptosis, and also about how iodine can be used to induce apoptosis by bypassing the obstruction (ego) and opening a channel directly to the heart of the cell. Mainly I was intrigued by how iodine is able to induce apoptosis not through any sort of traumatic action - it somehow reminds decaying/mutated cells that they are unhealthy, and they take care of the rest on their own. I consulted the yijing asking about this role that iodine plays, and I received hexagram 13, fire under heaven. It is a fitting progression following my exploration of the somewhat opposite dynamic of hexagram 36, fire under earth, the darkening of the light. Here is what the taoist yijing (liu yiming / cleary) says. I like this translation as it goes to the heart of yin, yang, and the alchemical process. In a way this is the strength of innocence. Clean and bright, it is welcomed by all, and so long as it does not attach to sentiment, the need to contest does not arise, and it is able to stay strong and bright without hurting others. Holding to truth - sincerity placed upon the unchanging heart of all things - it remains unchanged even within the wilds. Even should others attempt to change it, it constantly purifies itself, constantly centers itself within the light of truth, merely shining that truth outward as innocence, and this innocence ends up influencing those it touches, bringing them closer to the truth, even if they attempt to corrupt and darken. In this I see how iodine is able to influence the purging of darkness without taking any intentional step to purge darkness. I read once how species that developed within iodine rich seaweed beds evolved without immune systems, because there was no need, as the iodine took care of this. Perhaps we can see the influence of an ever-present strength of truth in this. In this I see encoded the mechanism of ziran. How one knows to flow spontaneously in the direction of sameness, the direction that will help one to maintain one's center without needing to take deliberate action. Like the deliberate placing of gravity, so that boulder of one's momentum may roll down the hill, pushed this way and that as one meets obstacles to truth, yet ever remaining aligned with that truth. Here perhaps the boulder reaches a place where truth is widespread, yet contained. It becomes easy for the boulder to forget to maintain awareness of the direction of the deeper truth, or its momentum may fade, and it may find that it can only regain the truth of illumination when it remains within the group that is illuminated, and then struggles whenever it meets those whom are not. In the beginning the boulder clearly saw the path of right and wrong. Following the gravity of truth, it came to those who also carried truth. Now continuing along, one comes to those who do not know truth. One's strength of truth is great, and it would be easy to apply this strength of truth upon those who oppose it. Yet this is only mounting a high horse, and one shows that one is different from others, and uses force to make them the same as oneself. A hill is created, where only those who can climb the hill are able to accord in sameness, while all others are cut away. It is easy to see this in a great many places, including moderator actions and the rules by which we declare the dimensions of our hill of truth, as well as threads where any person or group of people declares that theirs is the only way and belittles anyone who disagrees. Too I see this in "specialization", where it appears beneficial for there to be a goal, a purpose, an island. The island pokes out of the sea as a beacon of light.... and yet it is separate from all else, and in its specialized languages discovers that only those who climb its very specific island can communicate with it. The lesson I see in this is to set aside one's desire to shape others in any particular way, to accept them as they are even while maintaining one's own momentum and gravity toward truth, only responding to them in ways that this light of truth will not harm them. Perhaps we can see this in how daoist philosophy emphasizes simplicity, and the use of knowledge to discard knowledge. The use of a system that intentionally declares the island of its body of knowledge to be false. And thus it continuously assimilates into itself the knowledge of other systems without conflict, and without ever moving from the truth. Here the lower trigram, representing the inner dynamic, inner illumination, meets the outer dynamic, strength. The boulder, at the height of it's strength and momentum, happens upon a wall. Line one, the discerning of right and wrong, relates to line 4. Both are strong lines, and do not flow easily together, and this represents the knowing of right and wrong meeting a place where it is very difficult to discern the proper direction in which to proceed. Perhaps this is like Zhuangzi's cook, who comes upon a knot in the muscle, but rather than hacking it with force, summons the power to surrender completely, refusing to use force, refusing to tell the knot how it should be, but allowing the celestial mechanism to have complete control over its momentum. But before any action is made, the first stage is in stopping, so as to accord with the dynamic one faces. One day in class I was walking to take a place in the meditation circle, along with everyone else. My path crossed that of my Sifu's, and we surely would have run into each other, should we each have maintained the original intent of our momentums. However he simply stopped in place, allowing my momentum to pass him by. I learned much from this encounter. Yet in a way this is not simply stopping and allowing something to pass. It is more like stopping at a closed door in one's way. There is a way through, but one's recent momentum should not be used to force through it, or this would not be sameness with others. One must find a way to accord with the dynamic it faces, and so come to discover the key that will open the door. Having stopped, one's inner illumination is able to enter the heart of the outer strength. Perhaps this is like how, having stopped upon facing the knot, and having surrendered to the celestial mechanism, the path of sameness within the heart of the obstruction unfolds. Line 2 accords with line 5 - inwardly empty, one is able to meet what is externally strong with emptiness. Perhaps this is like where in push hands, one gives no resistance through which the other can grasp control. One rests upon the other, the other being able to find nothing to grasp upon, may have easy words of slander and criticism to place upon what which baffles them, that which they cannot understand and find the need to project explanations upon. And yet, in seeing the emptiness within that outer strength, it can pose no resistance to one's own inner strength. The cook finds that the knot of muscle has unraveled while he stood within the emptiness. Holding strength in words that are inherently empty, it is easy for those words to become slandered, and yet, if those words are able to reach through the surface, to the emptiness inside another, one's own firmness unassailable and able to reach into the heart of others, others become moved by one's sincerity and truth, and move to emulate that truth. I recall a story of my Sifu, who stopped doing two person work long ago. He spoke of a seminar he attended a couple decades back, where he decided to attend one of the push hands sessions. After a while, others started talking about him, saying did you do push hands with him? It's like he doesn't exist. Being completely centered, yin and yang within refined to emptiness, one's emptiness is able to accord with all effortlessly. One does nothing, and all things are done. I was in a cafe once, feeling very open, very humble, and very aware of how my field would shift and shape to the gravities of others as they passed me by. I came to realize that I did not need to resist their gravities in some vain effort at preserving my own refinement - more, I realized that there was no end to my own ending and the beginning of others, and that the more I was able to surrender and accept the interactions that surrounded me, the deeper I could melt into their own emptiness. The more I was able to see emptiness in all around me, the more I would nourish oneness within myself and others, helping to connect and unify all. Not merely remaining concealed within my own emptiness, but creating harmonious and non-conflicting healing through the connecting of all else to its own emptiness.

I don't try to. I simply summon the courage to regulate my energy through the cultivation work. This is basically like polishing a computer screen regularly to prevent smudges. Over time the smudges develop quite the personality... attach to it if you like. Personally I find that the more I polish, the more childlike I become - wide eyed, aware, full of health, and actively in tune with everything around me. My "smudge" quickly begins to think this is nice, and quickly begins to get in the way of what created that "nice" to begin with - if I stop polishing and let it. The more my "smudge" is allowed to grow and build, the more troubling it is to get rid of it. In any case, the purpose of the work isn't to deny something, as much as it is to keep what we have healthy enough to get somewhere. At least in my opinion. It seems we are all free to look at things however we like.

Habit momentum can be very strong. Ultimately, if we want to stop the desire to do something that no longer serves us, we need to drain its encapsulation of our energy. Resisting it and going with it are opposite sides of a polarity. One is like putting the brakes on one's momentum, the other is like speeding up. Often it is advised that one change direction. Instead of heading toward the old goal, change the goal. This can be healthy, and yet as long as that old pattern is not dealt with, we are just covering it up. As soon as we allow our other momentum to rest, the old desire may come back. It just depends on how strong it was/is. To dissolve that momentum, we can meditate every day, drawing our momentum into stillness - this is like putting on the brakes. This can help us find stillness. Similarly, we can do qigong, and reshape our energy. Yet unless we discover what creates that old desire to begin with, we will always need to maintain that reshaping of our energy. Conversely, if we consistently and sincerely maintain that reshaping of our energy for long enough, I believe we can eventually reach a place where it becomes permanent. So there is a choice, but both ways are similar. The changes in our energy need to reach deeper than the trauma that created the patterns we are healing from. Many momentums come from emotions, and especially early emotional traumas. These can be exacerbated by the emotions of people around us as well. Looking back to discover the source of these emotional traumas can help us identify where that pattern came from, connect that history to how the pattern exists today, face it's entire lineage back to the beginning, like one who might face off against a monster in the dark, with great courage and awareness, and thus pierce through it to drain the entire encapsulation, and the need to allow future encapsulations. Other momentums come from the nature of our bodies. We cannot easily undo the sexual organs that ebb and flow with energy that naturally wishes to express for the sake of the species. And frequently there are emotional momentums on top of these natural momentums. When we find clarity in the emotional momentums, we can also learn to look at where these sexual energies come from, and do qigong or physical, or emotional activity to help sublimate them so they do not overwhelm us by becoming an extreme influence. Other momentums come from the planets and the cosmos. They ebb and flow like the moon and the seasons. When we are sensitive enough to tune into these more subtle momentums, we can learn how to adapt and adjust ourselves toward greater balance before something becomes extreme. Just like we know how to brace ourselves when a car turns around a corner, rather than allowing ourselves to be tossed around blindly. Do without doing, Act without action. Savor the flavorless. Treat the small as large, the few as many. Meet injury with the power of goodness. Study the hard while it is still easy. Do big things while they are small. The hardest jobs in the world start out easy, the great affairs of the world start small. So the wise soul, by never dealing with great things, gets great things done. Now, since taking things too lightly makes them worthless, and taking things too easy makes them hard, the wise soul by treating the easy as hard, doesn't find anything hard. daodejing 63 Ursula K Leguin

My sense is that the next two chapters go on to explain this in detail. It is lesser/minor death because he doesn't stay dead, but comes back. At the beginning of chapter 6 it is mentioned he has since done this several times, similar to the last line in chapter 4. I believe the last line in chapter for lingers on without explanation to carry weight to the next two chapters, which end this section of the book.

The unchanging and the changing. What is? What isn't? Why is it you think you could know? How is it that in saying it, it would remain so?

I believe the answer may be found here. Please remember the advice of the ancients - use the appropriate tools for the appropriate times, without attachment. When presented with land, use a vehicle to traverse that type of land. When presented with an ocean, use a vehicle to traverse the ocean. If one attempts to drive a car up a mountain, or across an ocean, or to swim across an ocean as though it is a river, and so on, one's lofty dreams may quickly lead one to a very real death. If one attempts to equanimously unwind their past lives through the seven suns... even assuming their energy allows this stage to initiate.... if they have not been able to meet the challenges of their own life with full acceptance and equanimity, through many complete cyclings of the sun and moon.... well my guess is that one could be very unprepared to equanimously witness some of their own past actions, thus upsetting the merging of these primordial energies, and thus interfering with the process and ending their life. We can do much work on our own. But please remember that it often helps to get an outside perspective from one that is more highly achieved than we are, to show us if we have any blind spots. One who has already mastered themselves is very helpful in this, as they are able to see from all perspectives. Not all will be able to reach you though - be careful to find one who resonates with you. All that you need to do is focus sincerely within, and open to finding a teacher. Over time one's life will change, and with those changes, if one is patient long enough, one will suddenly find a teacher, without looking externally. If one looks externally, one is likely to find a teacher who has proclamations, but not necessarily truth, or one who is unobtainable. Trust yourself, sincerely, and your way will be true. Be humble, without attaching to lofty goals, and you will walk in the current of your own divine way.

Recently it dawned on me. Courage is the opening of fear. Love is the melting of the ice. To merge, the frozen, material, needs to open, be able to receive even though it is heavy. The spiritual needs to rest upon the material with love, to help melt it and assist its opening.

First, the idea of leaving something behind seems to signify an abandonment. Second, it sounds as though the work is done, and there is nothing more but to bask in enjoyment. The merits are recorded, as though that is final... but if one remains in the earthly realm, can more merits be accomplished? Third, original home of who? The first glimmer of spirit that eventually became embodied with it's counterpart of matter? Perhaps one has come a long way to reach this far, but why abandon that shell of matter and leave one's place in the midst of the union of spirit and matter to return to the extreme of spirit? Now I don't know anything, and I may be completely off, holding any expectation that these layers, which are beyond my comprehension, are anything I would have the slightest capacity to judge. Perhaps in time I will have greater clarity. Live "as long as the sky and earth", aka heaven and earth, does not mean the planet earth, nor does the "earthly realm." This implies that should something happen to the planet earth, there are other options. Further, one's impact on material-spiritual integration could have interesting, and I dare say healthy consequences to the planet earth's inevitable fate. It says one may leave one's shell and return to the ten continents and wander the three islands. But the monkey king chose to stay on the earth, and still managed to visit the realm of the Jade Emperor, as well as to return. Further it seemed as though he could do this at will, and they had little ability to stop him. Granted he was a bit unrefined, and they eventually bested him, harnessed him. Not sure what happens after that. Guess I need to keep reading Journey to the West. There is a fantastic translation by Anthony C Yu. Liu Yiming says this book should be read with the utmost reverence, as it reveals the celestial mechanism.